Officer shoots, kills fleeing driver in Waikiki

A driver in his 60s fleeing from a traffic stop died Wednesday night after a police officer shot him on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki, according to Emergency Medical Services, fire and police officials.

EMS said the call came in about 8:15 p.m.

Police spokeswoman Teresa Bell said the man died after being transported to a hospital. EMS said the man was taken there in extremely critical condition.

Witnesses said the officer, who was on foot, was trying to stop a suspect in car. The officer ordered the driver out of the vehicle, but he refused to comply and drove off, they said.

The officer fired as many as five gunshots, witnesses said.

From Kuhio and Kanekapolei Street, the car traveled more than a block, crossing the road and running up onto the sidewalk before crashing into a post at Kuhio and Liliuokalani Avenue, witnesses said.

A couple and their 9-year-old daughter from Los Angeles, Calif., were stopped on Kuhio and Kanekapolei avenues providing statements to police.

The husband, 51, said they saw a man trying to flee in a car on Kuhio heading in the direction of the zoo, and attempted to back up. An officer on foot told him to “get out of the car.”

The suspect kept trying to flee, he said.

“He wouldn’t comply and get out of the car,” he said.

His wife, 45, said she was more concerned about her other children who were in a car ahead of them, and what might happen them.

“We were driving by, and it happened right in front of us,” she said. “We heard the pop, pop, pop. It was scary.”

Jerry Williams, 73, of Kona, said he and his wife, Linda, saw the man driving east on Kuhio, then saw him drive into a palm tree as he was driving east on Kuhio.

He heard two to three shots.

“He zoomed past us 45 to 55 mph, careened into a pole, lost part of his fender, then zoomed across Kuhio onto the sidewalk and ran into a concrete structure,” he said.

On the Liliuokalani Avenue end of Kuhio, car parts were strewn along the opposite side of Kuhio from the car.

A visitor said he saw the man lying in the street as first responders tried to resuscitate him.

Shouts from the crowd of “police brutality” and questions concerning why police had to shoot the car, could be heard, said Travis Nishida, a videographer for KHON-TV.

Visitors and residents were prevented from returning to their hotels and homes within the investigation area for hours.